Performing

In 1987 Banks landed his first acting role, performing as a minor character in the fantasy-comedy Date with an Angel.

Banks hit it big when he developed (and starred in) a one-man theatrical show titled Home Entertainment Center – a comedic play about an easily-distracted procrastinator trying to meet a work deadline. He gave 440 performances of Home Entertainment Center at venues like the Canon Theater, Pasadena Playhouse, Marine's Memorial Theater, and The One Act in San Francisco (where the show ran for eleven months). For his performances, he was awarded the LA Weekly Theater Award, four Drama-Logue Awards, and three San Francisco Bay Area Critic's Awards. He also performed at the Aspen Comedy festival, the Cast Theater, Callboard Theater, and Las Palmas Theater.

In 1989 Home Entertainment Center achieved national fame when it was filmed and aired on Showtime; the filming was done at the Marine's Memorial Theater. The show featured original songs written and performed by Banks. On May 14 of 1989, he appeared (with Penn) on the Dr. Demento radio program (that year's Mother's Day Special) and performed a number of his songs live on-air.

The ensuing fame landed him a tv pilot on Showtime in January 1991 – The Steven Banks Show (sometimes inaccurately referenced as The Steven Brooks Show). The plot of the show was much the same as his one-act play: Banks portrayed Steven Brooks – an underachieving, chronic procrastinator fascinated by trivia and cursed with a penchant for comedic songs.

In the summer of 1991 after Paul "Pee-Wee Herman" Reubens was arrested for allegedly masturbating in an adult movie theater, Banks was among a number of entertainers who protested the decision of CBS to drop Reubens' show from their lineup. Banks can be seen in a crowd of protestors on an LA street in the E!True Hollywood Story episode about Reubens' arrest. Reubens was later offered (and declined) a supporting role on Banks' fledgling TV program.

Showtime aired the pilot for Banks' show, but never ran any other episodes. In 1994, PBS took an interest in his act. They filmed and aired The Steven Banks Show that summer – the first original sitcom ever produced and run by PBS. Brandon Tartikoff produced the show, filmed at WYES in New Orleans. A CD album for the show was also released, consisting of original songs written and performed by Steven Banks. 13 shows were shot and the program garnered critical acclaim, but one episode "Miss Janie Regrets" was not aired due to controversy over a PBS-like children's show parody. Banks' show has attained a kind of cult status despite its short run on PBS.

The Symphony of Science is a musical project headed by John Boswell designed to deliver scientific knowledge and philosophy in musical form. You are free to disagree that their reverence for the material and its message combined with their "irreverent" presentation constitutes a very subtle form of highly educational clowning...

Unruly Media, a viral video tracking service, first charted "A Glorious Dawn" on September 21, 2009. A month later, the video had received more than a million views and was ranked in the music category on YouTube as one of the top rated videos of all time. On November 9, 2009, Third Man Records released a 7-inch single of "A Glorious Dawn" for the 75th anniversary of the birth of Carl Sagan.

John Boswell

Composer John Boswell had been experimenting with sampling and remixing for some time before creating his first YouTube videos. Boswell had worked with Auto-Tune in the past and thought people might be interested in hearing American astronomer Carl Sagan sing. He first saw Cosmos in 2004 and soon after bought the set of DVD's. Boswell looked through these episodes for "profound quotes" that lacked music in the background. Once he found these quotes, Boswell Auto-Tuned Sagan's voice and picked from the best ones. After completing what became "A Glorious Dawn", Boswell posted the video on YouTube in September 2009, thinking he might get a few thousand views at most. Surprisingly, the video went viral within a week.[1][2] To date, the video has received more than two million views and is ranked as one of the top rated videos of all time in the music category.[3]

John Boswell attended Gonzaga Preparatory School[2] and graduated from college with a degree in economics. Soon after, Boswell started Colorpulse, an electronica music project, and began to focus on production.[4] Boswell lives in Bellingham, Washington.[2] His current music project, Symphony of Science, "aims to spread scientific knowledge and philosophy through musical remixes"[5] and to "deliver scientific knowledge and philosophy in musical form".[6]

Music and video

A Glorious Dawn

Boswell's first video in the Symphony of Science series is 3 minutes, 34 seconds long and features Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking. Samples include clips from Cosmos (1980) and Stephen Hawking's Universe (1997).[6] On September 21, 2009, Unruly Media, a viral video tracking service, began to chart the popularity of the video.[7] At the end of the first week of October, the video had received 800,000 views,[2] and by the end of the month, more than a million. By the end of 2009, the video had surpassed 2 million views.

The title takes its name from the chorus spoken by Carl Sagan, remixed from an episode of Cosmos:

Third Man Records released a 7-inch recording of "A Glorious Dawn" on November 9, 2009, in honor of the 75th anniversary of the birth of Carl Sagan.[8] The one-sided single was created by United Record Pressing in a unique "Cosmos Colored Vinyl", limited pressing of 150 copies; it was then re-pressed on regular vinyl in a larger run. The flipside is etched with a copy of the diagram found on the Voyager Golden Record.[8]

Our Place in the Cosmos

The third video in the series is 4 minutes, 21 seconds in length and was released on November 23, 2009. "Our Place in the Cosmos" features Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins, Michio Kaku and Robert Jastrow. Samples were taken from Cosmos, Genius of Charles Darwin, a TED talk, Stephen Hawking's Universe, interviews and visuals from Baraka and Koyaanisqatsi, History Channel's Universe series, and Cosmic Voyage.

The title comes from words spoken by Carl Sagan and remixed by Boswell:

The exploration of the cosmos

Is a voyage of self discovery

As long as there have been humans

We have searched for our place in the cosmos

The Unbroken Thread

The fourth video in the series is 4 minutes in length and was released on January 6, 2010. "The Unbroken Thread" is themed around biology and evolution rather than the cosmos, and features Carl Sagan, David Attenborough, and Jane Goodall.

Reviews

Musician Carrie Brownstein found the idea behind Symphony of Science "quite beautiful and amazing in both its sincerity and aims". She also enjoyed the "hip-hop stylings" of the camera angle on Bill Nye while he is moving his hands around and expressing himself on "We Are All Connected".[9] Writer Nick Sagan, son of Carl Sagan, was impressed with "A Glorious Dawn", giving it a favorable review and stamp of approval. Sagan writes: "John Boswell over at Colorpulse Music is a mad genius, sampling both Cosmos and Stephen Hawking's Universe series into three minutes and thirty-four seconds of pure, concentrated awesomeness...Love it, love it, love it. Dad would have loved it, too."[10]

Columnist Franklin Harris argues that Boswell's videos show that science can arouse the minds of artists just as much as religion and mythology have in the past. Harris calls the videos "art for the Information Age, inspired by science".[11]

"We talk about theatre museums filled with old costumes and things. What we also need is a theatre museum of the old routines on videotape. We are only the custodians of those techniques, and they should be preserved."

The Abbotts of Unreason (Joe Dieffenbacher, Mark Renfrow and Bob Scheile) were all graduates from the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College Class of '83.
They were a huge hit at festivals and clubs in the USA, combining strong comic characters with circus skills and slapstick. For more info, please visit www.nakupelle.com.

Just wanted to let people know there are three spots still open for the leather clown nose making workshop this January 5th and 7th at 7 PM. If you would like to participate let me know tonight as I will be buying tools tomorrow morning.

Have a great and healthy 2010Stanley

Want to make your own Custom Fitted Leather Clown Nose?

CUSTOM FITTED CLOWN NOSE MAKING WORKSHOP

"I just want to give a plug for Stanley's leatherclown noses. I bought one twenty-two years ago and it's still in good shape. I used it a lot in performance the first ten years and still use it in rehearsal. It has such a distinct (and comfortable) feel when I wear it, that I'm ready to play as soon as I put it on (Pavlov's fool)." Foolishly, Drew RichardsonJanuary 5, 2007

One great thing about the leather clown nose is they do not sweat like rubber or latex, you can breathe and they have a much more natural look than rubber. From what clowns have reported to me their leather clown noses have lasted on an average of 8 to 10 years. Ooops it is longer - Drew Richardson's nose is going on 22 years.

Price: $100 for the classTool and material fee: $89 (you get to keep the 7 tools)Total: $189.

To reserve your spot you must pay the full fee in advance by October 29, 2009, because I need to buy the tools and supplies in advance.(Will accept 50% deposit from those people with financial needs. Now accepting credit card payments in advance with Google Checkout).

“Why do I like clowns so much? Why are they so powerful to children? Probably because they are dangerous. That kind of danger is really what it’s all about. It’s that kind of stuff that I think gets you through life. Those are the only things worth expressing, in some ways: danger and presenting subversive subject matter in a fun way."